Solon Ninth Grade Chess Team Places Fifth At National Competition

Solon High School’s ninth grade chess team captured fifth place honors at the U.S. Chess Federation’s SuperNationals V chess tournament earlier this month.

"While testing their skills against some of the top chess players in the nation, this SHS team of ninth graders represented Solon High School, the school district and the state of Ohio well by finishing fifth in the nation in the K-9 championship section," said Solon chess coach Tony Dunlap.

Team members Joel Jaffe, Daniel Guo, Lawrence Liu, John Xiang, Alan Stepanski and Antony Styrt made up one of the 1,565 teams from 49 states and Puerto Rico competing in the 2013 SuperNationals V tournament. This year’s competition broke the record for largest-rated chess competition in history with 5,335 participants, Mr. Dunlap said.

In competing against players with chess ratings 200 points higher than his, Joel Jaffe went undefeated in his seven games at the tournament with two wins and five draws.

Solon Middle School seventh grader Tony Zhang also competed in Nashville.